How many times have you glibly been told that 97% of scientists agree that man made CO2 is responsible for global warming and climate change? President Obama tweeted it not so long ago, Sen. Kerry used that statistic and so did the Pope. I wonder if any of the three of them realized where that statistic comes from and just how meaningless that really is?

There are two sources for the 97% and neither of them are very compelling. One was a two question survey sent to over 10,000 Earth Scientist asking two set up questions. The first asked if temperatures had risen in the last 100 years and the second asked if man had an impact on that temperature rise. Now only about 3500 surveys were completed and of them only 79 were completed by people who were ‘climate scientists’ – whatever that is. Of those 79 climate scientists, 77 answered yes to both questions – or 97%. I would have too and I am in the 97% according to the questions asked – isn’t everybody?

The other source of the statistics was a survey of peer reviewed papers by a University Professor in Australia. Again, if you actually read the paper he wrote you won’t be overly impressed. Actually only 37% of the papers suggested man made CO2 as a cause but by fudging the way papers were included or excluded, he managed to make it 97%. Statistics… damn lies and statistics.

The purpose of the Petition Project is to demonstrate that the claim of “settled science” and an overwhelming “consensus” in favor of the hypothesis of human-caused global warming and consequent climatological damage is wrong. No such consensus or settled science exists. As indicated by the petition text and signatory list, a very large number of American scientists reject this hypothesis.

Publicists at the United Nations, Mr. Al Gore, and their supporters frequently claim that only a few “skeptics” remain – skeptics who are still unconvinced about the existence of a catastrophic human-caused global warming emergency.

It is evident that 31,487 Americans with university degrees in science – including 9,029 PhDs, are not “a few.” Moreover, from the clear and strong petition statement that they have signed, it is evident that these 31,487 American scientists are not “skeptics.”

These scientists are instead convinced that the human-caused global warming hypothesis is without scientific validity and that government action on the basis of this hypothesis would unnecessarily and counterproductively damage both human prosperity and the natural environment of the Earth.

As of today, make that 31,488 Americans with science degrees and 9,030 PhDs.

My Haunted Life – Extreme Edition is now on Kindle at the very reasonable price of just $7.99! It is essentially the set of My Haunted Life, My Haunted Life Too and My Haunted Life 3 which, if we purchased individually would cost more than $10. But wait, the Extreme edition includes two stories additionally as well for even more value! The paperback is also available and having ordered several for my own use I can tell you its a nice thick book full of scary true stories and would make an ideal gift for someone….. You can lend the Kindle version too if you are part of the Amazon Prime program or you can buy the Kindle and paperback both for a truly great price….

On Wednesday, the My Haunted Life compilation will become available of Kindle – My Haunted Life The Extreme Edition is a compilation of all three My Haunted Life books plus two bonus stories. To help promote the launch of the compilation, I am giving away the first of the trilogy – My Haunted Life – today and tomorrow on Kindle from any Amazon site. Stop by now and grab your copy… and if you enjoy it, remember to grab the Extreme compilation on Wednesday…..

How often do you think ahead, plan and look forward to things? How often do you find yourself reflecting back on the past? The reason I ask is because it struck me recently that there comes a time in life when looking back becomes more important than looking forwards. I now call this Life‘s Tipping Point.

The idea began to formulate when I was writingHow to Create Your Own Reality. I had read an article on experiments that suggested that aging is mostly in your head and it struck a chord with me and the idea that we create our own reality partially as a result of what we think and imagine. The article was fascinating in that it showed that memory or recall in older people could be significantly improved just by convincing people that they were young and vibrant as opposed to young and forgetful. You see, becoming forgetful as we age is what I call a personal conspiracy theory. We believe it and so it is. It doesn’t have to be believed and if we can change our personal conspiracy theory, we can improve our life.

I began to think about my state of mind as I age and it suddenly hit me. As I get older, I spend more time looking back than looking forward. Oh how that contrasts with me when I was say 18. Back then, I was always planning and looking ahead. At some point in the last 10-years or so, I began to look back more than I look forward and in doing so, I tipped my life balance towards aging and I stopped animating my future with energy. Instead, I am giving that energy to my past – something that I cannot do much about.

I think we all do this. The symptoms are things like not being able to deal with new fangled technologies, not liking changes in our life structure and aging in mind and body. But, we can stop or at least arrest this by understanding what the tipping point is and by moving that tipping point out. All we have to do is continually plan, look forward and think of the future with excitement while not dwelling so much thought on the past.

Never look back they say. I agree.

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About me

G. Michael Vasey is a Yorkshire man and rabid Tigers fan that has spent most of his adult life lost deep in Texas and more lately, in the Czech Republic. While lucky enough to write for a living as a leading analyst in the commodity trading and risk management industry, he surreptitiously writes strange poems and equally strange books and stories on the topics of metaphysics, the occult and the paranormal on the side, hoping that one-day, someone might actually buy them.
After growing up experiencing ghosts, poltergeist and other strange and scary experiences, he developed an interest in magic and the esoteric. These days he fancies himself as a bit of a mystic and a magician to boot. Most of his inspiration for his scribbling comes from either meditation or occasionally, very loud heavy metal music.
He has appeared on radio shows such as Everyday Connection and X Radio with Rob McConnell to tell strange and scary stories. He has also been featured in Chat - Its Fate magazine and interviewed by Ghost Village and Novel Ideas amongst others.
He blogs addictively at garymvasey.com and he tweets micro thoughts at @gmvasey. He also reviews a lot of very weird books at strangebookreviews.com.